Wall Check
EspoCRM
The GPLv3 core is free and self-hostable on PostgreSQL 15 — workflows, BPM and reports are sold as extensions, and the cloud bundles them behind record caps.
Gates 4/5 4 of the five walls fired — the score is a count, not a verdict.
Checked 2026-09-25 · re-check due 2026-11-24.
The five walls
! Price wall
The free tier ends. The limit you hit while everything still looks free.
Self-hosted core is $0 under GPLv3. Cloud bundles all extensions but caps records — Basic tops out at 100,000 — so the price wall is a data wall.
source · checked 2026-09-25
! Permission wall
You can see the setting but not touch it. Licenses and admin roles decide what you control.
Workflows, business-process management and advanced reports are not in the core — they ship as the paid Advanced Pack extension; VoIP, Google/Outlook sync and AI are separate packs.
source · checked 2026-09-25
✓ Gate wall
A human at the vendor decides your timeline — approvals, reviews, onboarding queues.
No vendor approval queue: download, self-host and buy extensions self-serve; telephony packs inherit carrier gates like A2P registration, not Espo’s.
source · checked 2026-09-25
! Meter wall
Cost scales with your success. Per-unit, per-seat, per-message pricing that grows as you do.
Cloud meters records — Basic 100k, Enterprise 10M, Ultimate unlimited — plus per-user storage; self-host meters nothing beyond your own server.
source · checked 2026-09-25
! Exit wall
Getting out costs more than getting in. Your data, your domain, your number — who keeps them.
Runs on standard MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL-15 tables and records export — but workflows, layouts and field-level rules live in Espo metadata that rebuilds elsewhere.
source · checked 2026-09-25
The twelve questions
- What is the hard number where the free tier ends?
- Self-host $0 (GPLv3); cloud meters records (100k to unlimited)
Documents read for this check: extensions store, docs, cloud page.
We are not paid by this vendor or any vendor listed here. These are the gates we found — which ones you accept is your call, not ours.
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